Arnold Orville Beckman was an American chemist, inventor, investor, and philanthropist. While a professor at California Institute of Technology, he founded Beckman Instruments based on his 1934 invention of the pH meter, a device for measuring acidity, later considered to have "revolutionized the study of chemistry and biology". He also developed the DU spectrophotometer, "probably the most important instrument ever developed towards the advancement of bioscience". Beckman funded the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, the first silicon transistor company in California, thus giving rise to Silicon Valley. After retirement, he and his wife Mabel (1900–1989) were numbered among the top philanthropists in the United States.
Arnold Beckman
Arnold Beckman, ca. 1921
Fourteen Weeks in Chemistry (p.27 shown) inspired Beckman at the age of 9.
Beckman Helipot potentiometer SA1400A
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes of technology in the United States that are strongly devoted to the instruction of pure and applied sciences. Due to its history of technological innovation, Caltech has been considered to be one of the world's most prestigious universities.
Throop Polytechnic Institute on its original campus at downtown Pasadena
Throop Hall, 1912
Caltech entrance at 1200 E California Blvd. On the left is East Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics and on the right is the Linde Hall of Mathematics and Physics.
Richard C. Tolman and Albert Einstein at Caltech, 1932